Egypt hardens line on Muslim Brotherhood

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Ahmed Ashraf/The Associated Press

Egyptian security forces gathered at the scene of an explosion at police headquarters in Mansour on Tuesday. The Muslim Brotherhood was blamed for the blast although another group claimed responsibility.

CAIRO — A day after the military-backed government officially designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group, authorities announced dozens of arrests Thursday and warned that holding a leadership post in the group would be grounds for the death penalty.

The announcement came as a bomb exploded in a busy intersection in Cairo, hitting a bus and wounding five people. Though small, the blast raised fears that a campaign of violence by Islamic militants, which for months has targeted police and the military, could turn to civilians in retaliation for the stepped-up crackdown.

By labeling the Brotherhood a terrorist group — a step not taken even during past decades when the group was banned — the government has taken its effort to crush the group to a new level. The Brotherhood dominated Egypt's politics for much of the past three years, until the military deposed President Mohammed Morsi in July.

And despite designating the group a terrorist organization, the government has presented no evidence that it has been involved in recent terrorist attacks. It blamed the Brotherhood for a bombing Tuesday in Mansoura that killed 16 people, but another group, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, claimed responsibility.

Despite the crackdown, the Brotherhood vowed to escalate its protests against the military-backed government. But the group has struggled to bring numbers into the streets under a crackdown that has already killed hundreds of its members and put thousands more in prison, including Morsi and other top leaders. There were few signs of protest Thursday.

The moves, all playing out before the backdrop of increasing violence by al-Qaeda-inspired militants, raise the potential for greater turmoil as the country nears a key Jan. 14-15 referendum on a revised constitution, a milestone in the post-Morsi political transition.

Ahmed Imam, spokesman for the Strong Egypt Party, which was founded by former Brotherhood member Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, warned that the terrorism label “leaves the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters only one choice, which is violence.”

Both sides are showing “a great deal of stupidity,” he said, blaming the Brotherhood for failing to firmly distance itself from militant violence and the government for closing doors to reconciliation.

In past months, the authorities have used various legal justifications for arresting Morsi supporters, from accusing them of inciting violence to blocking roads. But Wednesday’s terrorist designation means the Brotherhood’s hundreds of thousands of members can be arrested for simple membership under a tough years-old anti-terrorism law. The government says it will allow leeway for those who renounce the group’s ideology and membership.

The government also said it had urged other Arab governments to take similar steps against members in their countries under a 1998 regional anti-terrorism treaty.

Police on Thursday arrested 16 Brotherhood members in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya on charges of belonging to a terrorist group, the state news agency MENA said. Another 54 were arrested on accusations that they attacked police stations or incited violence.

Private TV networks aired the number for a hotline for people to report “members of the terrorist Brotherhood” to the National Security Agency, raising the possibility of citizens turning on citizens.

To drain the group’s resources, the government froze the funds of more than 1,000 non-government organizations and charities associated with the Brotherhood and put more than 100 schools run by the group under government supervision. That step directly attacks the grassroots network that gave the Brotherhood much of its strength in Egyptian society.

But there were also indications that the government might have overreached.

After widespread confusion and concern about the funds cutoff, government officials partly reversed course Thursday night, saying that the organizations whose funds had been frozen would be allowed access to money to continue operating.

One of the operations caught in the whipsaw was the Islamic Medical Association, a network of hospitals founded by a Brotherhood leader in the 1970s that now serves more than 2 million patients a year, mostly in poor neighborhoods.

A doctor at one of the facilities, Central Hospital in the Nasr City district of Cairo, said Thursday that admissions had already dropped by nearly half, with many people apparently worried that even going to the hospital would be seen as supporting the Brotherhood.

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